Climate
The Tampa Bay area has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), with warm temperatures and the threat of thunderstorms during the summer and the winter frost at least once a year. However, large freezes only occur in the area about every 10–15 years, and the area shows some characteristics of a tropical monsoon climate. The area is listed by the USDA as being in hardiness zone 9, which is about the northern limit of where coconut palms and royal palms can be grown. Highs usually range between 65 and 95 °F (18 and 35 °C) year round. Surprisingly to some, Tampa's official high has never reached 100 °F (38 °C) - the all-time record high temperature is 99 °F (37 °C). St. Petersburg's all-time record high is exactly 100 °F (38 °C).
Pinellas County lies on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and much of the city of Tampa lies on a smaller peninsula jutting out into Tampa Bay. This proximity to large bodies of water both moderates local temperatures and introduces large amounts of humidity into the atmosphere. In general, the communities farthest from the coast have more extreme temperature differences, both during a single day and throughout the seasons of the year.
| Climate data for Tampa, Florida (Tampa Int'l), 1981–2010 normals | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 86 (30) |
88 (31) |
91 (33) |
93 (34) |
98 (37) |
99 (37) |
98 (37) |
98 (37) |
96 (36) |
95 (35) |
90 (32) |
86 (30) |
99 (37) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 70.3 (21.3) |
72.8 (22.7) |
76.6 (24.8) |
81.3 (27.4) |
87.5 (30.8) |
90.0 (32.2) |
90.4 (32.4) |
90.5 (32.5) |
89.3 (31.8) |
84.6 (29.2) |
78.3 (25.7) |
72.4 (22.4) |
82.0 (27.8) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 50.8 (10.4) |
53.6 (12.0) |
57.5 (14.2) |
62.2 (16.8) |
68.9 (20.5) |
74.1 (23.4) |
75.2 (24.0) |
75.5 (24.2) |
73.7 (23.2) |
67.3 (19.6) |
59.6 (15.3) |
53.6 (12.0) |
64.3 (17.9) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 21 (−6) |
24 (−4) |
29 (−2) |
40 (4) |
49 (9) |
53 (12) |
63 (17) |
67 (19) |
57 (14) |
40 (4) |
23 (−5) |
18 (−8) |
18 (−8) |
| Rainfall inches (mm) | 2.23 (56.6) |
2.80 (71.1) |
3.03 (77) |
2.03 (51.6) |
2.10 (53.3) |
6.68 (169.7) |
7.06 (179.3) |
7.76 (197.1) |
6.29 (159.8) |
2.25 (57.2) |
1.55 (39.4) |
2.47 (62.7) |
46.25 (1,174.8) |
| Avg. rainy days (≥ 0.01 inch) | 6.8 | 6.6 | 6.6 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 12.7 | 15.9 | 16.0 | 12.2 | 6.5 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 104.6 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 65 | 66 | 71 | 75 | 75 | 67 | 62 | 62 | 62 | 66 | 64 | 61 | 66 |
| Source #1: NOAA, Average Percent Sunshine through 2009 | |||||||||||||
| Source #2: Weather Channel (extremes) | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Tampa Bay Area
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“The climate of Ohio is perfect, considered as the home of an ideal republican people. Climate has much to do with national character.... A climate which permits labor out-of-doors every month in the year and which requires industry to secure comfort—to provide food, shelter, clothing, fuel, etc.—is the very climate which secures the highest civilization.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions it is the parent of, we have reason to value highly the accident of birth in such a one as that of Virginia.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)